Loading…
Type: Community Event clear filter
Friday, May 23
 

5:30pm MDT

Wild Dark: A Multimedia Presentation with Craig Childs
Friday May 23, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT
1 Steddy Theater
Beloved Colorado author Craig Childs (House of Rain, Animal Dialogues, Tracing Time, Secret Knowledge of Water, Atlas of a Lost World) returns to Crested Butte with his newest book, The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light. A reading from Craig is a not-to-miss occasion. Blending sound and visual elements Childs takes the audience with him to desert landscapes and wilderness landscapes seen by few.

A night sky is not an absence of light; it is the presence of the universe. In The Wild Dark, master storyteller Craig Childs embarks on a quest to bike from the blinding lights of the Las Vegas Strip to one of the darkest spots in North America. Childs is a fearless explorer of both the natural world and the human imagination, making him the perfect guide to help us rediscover the heavens and to ask: “What does it do to us to not see the night sky?” In a book that is at once an adventure story, a field guide, and a celebration of wonder, Childs invites us to look up and to look inward, eyes wide and sparkling with stars.
Speakers
avatar for Craig Childs

Craig Childs

An Arizona native, Craig Childs has lived within the bounds of the Gunnison River and the nearby Dolores for thirty-five years. He has published more than a dozen books of adventure, wilderness, and science and is a contributing editor at Adventure Journal Quarterly. His writing has... Read More →
Friday May 23, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT
1 Steddy Theater
  Community Event, Conversation
 
Saturday, May 24
 

9:00am MDT

Where Will the Green Future Come From?
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
2024 National Book Award Longlist Finalist Ernest Scheyder (The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives) and Land Desk bard Jonathan Thompson (Sage Brush Rebellion, River of Lost Souls) take on the most pressing question facing public lands no one is talking about, where will the green future come from? The answer is from the ground and likely beneath our own feet.
Speakers
avatar for Ernie Scheyder

Ernie Scheyder

Senior Correspondent, Reuters
Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent for Reuters covering the green energy transition and critical minerals, as well as the author of the forthcoming book The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power our Lives. He previously covered the U.S. shale oil revolution... Read More →
avatar for Jonathan Thompson

Jonathan Thompson

Jonathan Thompson is a writer, editor and journalist who has been covering the lands and communities of the Western U.S. since 1996, when he signed on as the Silverton Standard & the Miner’s sole reporter. Since then he has worked in a variety of roles — from editor-in-chief to... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 9:00am - 10:00am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
  Community Event, Conversation

10:15am MDT

Building Better Roads to Wildlife Restoration
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
Winner of the Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, Ben Goldfarb and WildEarth Guardians Executive Director, Hop Hopkins discuss the human impacts of 40 million miles of roads around the planet on wildlife and how conservationists are working to restore habitats. Join Ben Goldfarb in conversation with Dan Flores (American Coyote) in a lively discussion on habitat and our place in it.
Speakers
avatar for Dan Flores

Dan Flores

Dan Flores is a Santa Fe-area writer originally from Louisiana who spent much of his career at the University of Montana. His essays have been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Time Magazine. Along with appearances on the History Channel... Read More →
avatar for Ben Goldfarb

Ben Goldfarb

Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, High Country News, and many other publications. He is the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, named one of the best... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
  Community Event, Conversation

10:15am MDT

Love Has Won: America and the New Age Movement
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
5 Kinder-Padon Gallery
In this "unflinching and wildly entertaining" investigation of the modern New Age movement in America, a journalist aims to understand how women like Amy Carlson (the leader of Love Has Won) and others become devoutly invested in their beliefs (Talia Lavin, author of Culture Warlords).

Today, tarot cards, astrology and crystals are everywhere — on Instagram and TikTok, and sold at upscale boutiques and pricey wellness retreats. Journalist Leah Sottile turns her investigative eye toward  the recent surge of New Age influencing American Culture. She looks at self-professed gurus like Love Has Won's Mother God and the mysterious channeler Ramtha, who have built devout followings based on their teachings. For more than a century, this pastel-colored world of love, light and enlightenment has been built upon a foundation of conspiracies, antisemitism, nationalism and a rejection of science.  

In Blazing Eye Sees All, Sottile seeks to understand the quest for New Age spirituality in an era of fear that has made us open to anything that claims to bring relief from war, the climate crisis, COVID 19, and the myriad of other issues we face. At the same time, she attempts to draw a line between truly helpful, healing ideas and snake oil—helping us sort through the crystals to find true clarity.
Speakers
avatar for Leah Sottile

Leah Sottile

Leah Sottile is the author of two books: Blazing Eye Sees All and When the Moon Turns to Blood. Her journalism has been published by The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Outside, the BBC, The Atlantic and High Country News, where she is a correspondent... Read More →
avatar for Laura Krantz

Laura Krantz

Laura Krantz is a journalist, editor and producer, in both radio and print, and co-founder of Foxtopus Ink. Her podcast, Wild Thing has received critical acclaim from Scientific American, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, which named it one of the best 50 podcasts in 2018 and 2020... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
5 Kinder-Padon Gallery
  Community Event, Conversation

11:30am MDT

The Obstacle is the Path: Lunch Conversation for Writers
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
5 Kinder-Padon Gallery
Where do you start as a writer? Is an MFA right for me? How do you publish a poem? What are the different paths to publication? Three writers are here to answer whatever questions you have about writing life and the many paths one can take. (Dan Manzanares, Suzi Q. Smith, Steven Dunn)
Speakers
avatar for Suzi Q. Smith

Suzi Q. Smith

Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning author, artist, educator, and organizer who lives in Denver, Colorado. While primarily known for her poetry, Suzi is also a singer-songwriter, playwright, and interdisciplinary creative. She has created, curated, coached, and taught for over 20 years... Read More →
avatar for Steven C. Dunn

Steven C. Dunn

A 2021 Whiting Award winner, and shortlisted for Granta magazine’s “Best of Young American Novelists,” Steven Dunn is the author of two books from Tarpaulin Sky Press: water & power (2018) and Potted Meat, which was a co-winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards, a finalist... Read More →
avatar for Dan Manzanares

Dan Manzanares

Dan Manzanares’ passion is helping novelists professionalize their writing process. The Story Map, a holistic storytelling model he co-created in a Costa Rican jungle, transforms writers to authors, people committed to connecting with readers. Working relationally, instead of structurally... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 11:30am - 12:30pm MDT
5 Kinder-Padon Gallery
  Community Event, Conversation

1:00pm MDT

Return to the Dustbowl with Karen Russell and Ramona Ausubel
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm MDT
1 Steddy Theater
Pulitzer Prize Finalist and MacArthur Fellow Karen Russell joins Colorado State University professor and award winning novelist Ramona Ausubel to discuss Russell’s new novel, The Antidote. Described by Editor and Chief of Knopf as, “a singularly great American novel,”  and NPR as, 'An American Epic', this is a must-attend keynote fiction event for Mountain Words 2025.

 
Speakers
avatar for Ramona Ausubel

Ramona Ausubel

Ramona Ausubel’s fifth book, The Last Animal was a national bestseller, a Barnes & Noble book of the month and named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Kirkus and the Oprah quarterly. Her previous books are Awayland: stories, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, A Guide to Being Born... Read More →
avatar for Karen Russell

Karen Russell

Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm MDT
1 Steddy Theater
  Community Event, Conversation

1:00pm MDT

The Power of Poetry with Teow Lim Goh and Erica Reid
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm MDT
2 King Room
Poets Erica Reid and Teow Lim Goh read and discuss their newest works, Ghost Man on Second and Bitter Creek: An Epic Poem. Straddling the intimate and the weight of history, both wield poetry to its maximum potential as masters of form and craft. 
Speakers
avatar for Teow Lim Goh

Teow Lim Goh

Teow Lim Goh is the author of three poetry collections, Islanders (2016), Faraway Places (2021), and Bitter Creek (2025). Her essay collection Western Journeys (2022) was a finalist for the 2023 Colorado Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction. Her writing has been featured in The Georgia... Read More →
avatar for Erica Reid

Erica Reid

Erica Reid is the author of Ghost Man on Second, winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize (Autumn House Press, 2024). Erica’s poems appear in Rattle, Cherry Tree, Colorado Review, and more. Erica is a 2025 Fellow at the Vermont Center for the Creative Arts and teaches in Western... Read More →
Saturday May 24, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm MDT
2 King Room
  Community Event, Conversation
 
Sunday, May 25
 

10:15am MDT

Blue Plate: Food Lovers Guide to Climate Chaos
Sunday May 25, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
Join Mark, Thomas Kostigen (Cool Food), and Laura Krantz for a riveting conversation on the food we eat and how we can change the planet for good! 
Mark Easter is the author of The Blue Plate: A Food Lovers Guide to Climate Chaos, published by Patagonia Books in 2024. In it, he explores the question “Can we eat our way out of the climate crisis?” 
Mark is an ecologist and greenhouse gas accountant who has researched the carbon emissions from food, forestry, and fiber in academia and private industry for more than two decades. He spent much of his career working with farmers, ranchers, foresters and scientists around the world, researching how historical and modern agriculture contributed to the warming climate, and identifying both new and old farming and ranching methods that not only reduce the dangerous climate emissions behind our daily plates of food, but reverse those emissions wherever possible by drawing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere back into the soil.


Speakers
avatar for Thomas Kostigen

Thomas Kostigen

Thomas Kostigen is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author and journalist. He founded the Climate Survivalist column for USA Today and has written for numerous publications, including the Washington Post, National Geographic, Discover, Departures, the Los Angeles Times... Read More →
avatar for Laura Krantz

Laura Krantz

Laura Krantz is a journalist, editor and producer, in both radio and print, and co-founder of Foxtopus Ink. Her podcast, Wild Thing has received critical acclaim from Scientific American, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, which named it one of the best 50 podcasts in 2018 and 2020... Read More →
avatar for Mark Easter

Mark Easter

Mark Easter is an ecologist, greenhouse gas accountant, and writer who explores the beauty, wonder, and challenges of life on the spinning blue marble we call Earth. Originally from Nebraska, Mark attended college in Indiana and Vermont, and has been fortunate to work around the globe... Read More →
Sunday May 25, 2025 10:15am - 11:15am MDT
1 Steddy Theater
  Community Event, Conversation

1:00pm MDT

The Arctic Traverse @Gunnison Library
Sunday May 25, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm MDT
6 Gunnison County Public Library
Michael Englehard will share his outdoor adventures featured in his book, Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range
2024 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in Journeys
2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist in Nature

"Engelhard locates life—biological, cultural, and geophysical—in every mile of this vast, wild landscape." —Robert Moor, author of On Trails: An Exploration

A lyrical memoir that interweaves wilderness, homeland, cultural connections, historical figures, humor, and gritty experiences across northern Alaska, Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range takes readers along on a once-in-a-lifetime journey.

From the award-winning author of Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon comes an intimate exploration of Alaska’s northernmost mountain range with observations on Indigenous cultures, conservation, and intense cross-country travel, all shaped by respect for the land. Follow author Michael Engelhard through tussock-studded tundra for a remarkable tale of bear encounters and white-knuckled river moments, as well as poetic reflections on a vast, untamed landscape. A trained anthropologist, Engelhard evokes classic writers like Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, and Ellen Meloy with profound dives into human and natural history and vivid meditations on Alaskan wildlife, flora, and geology. When he embarked on this thru-hike, fewer people had completed it solo in a single push than had dived to the floor of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth’s oceans.

Much more than a captivating account of a human-powered solo thru-hike and float, Arctic Traverse illuminates the spirit of Alaska, drawing on encounters with Indigenous elders, guided clients, scientists, and others as well as on Engelhard’s long-held dream and his experiences of the land itself.
Speakers
avatar for Michael Engelhard

Michael Engelhard

Trained as an anthropologist with a degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Michael Engelhard worked for twenty-five years as a wilderness guide and outdoor instructor in Alaska and on the Colorado Plateau. The editor of four anthologies and author of Ice Bear, a cultural... Read More →
Sunday May 25, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm MDT
6 Gunnison County Public Library
  Community Event, Conversation
 
Mountain Words Festival
From $0.00
Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link

Filter sessions
Apply filters to sessions.
Thursday, May 22
Friday, May 23
Saturday, May 24
Sunday, May 25
1 Steddy Theater
2 King Room
3 Hawk Room
4 Grace Atrium
5 Kinder-Padon Gallery
6 Gunnison County Public Library
  • Community Event
  • Fiction
  • Memoir
  • Poetry
  • Popular